In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter CLXXI: Troubled Water

When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you
I'll take your part
Oh, when darkness comes
And pain is all around

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Sail on silver girl
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way
See how they shine
Oh, if you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind

Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind

"Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Simon & Garfunkel

~

LUCY:

February 24, 1996 was a Saturday. It marked one year since the second task. It marked one year since the nightmare had started, too. The fact that it happened every month, every 24th, didn't make it any less terrifying. The darkness, the cold, the hopelessness, the knowledge that Cedric wasn't coming. It never got easier. Every 24th, I was launched back into reality feeling as if I really had been down there all night long. The first time I'd woken up from that nightmare, though, Cedric had been right there, pulling me swiftly to shore and assuring me over and over and over and over that he was there and I was safe.

A year later, when I jerked awake from the same horrible nightmare for the thirteenth time, I was all too aware of the fact that Cedric's presence was a comfort I would never have again.

I tried to steady my breathing as I swallowed my tears. The sun had not yet risen, but I needed to get out of the castle. I changed into one of Cedric's jumpers with trembling hands and practically fled the dormitory. I cast silencing charms all around me as I sprinted through hallways and corridors, and I was careful to stick to shadows as I darted out into the dawn. I didn't stop running until I reached the end of the dock on the Black Lake.

I lowered myself to the wooden planks and let my legs dangle freely over the water. It was then that the first sob escaped me, and the tears began to fall.

I wrapped Cedric's jumper around me as tightly as I could, but there was nothing left of him to hold. Never again would I get to hold him the way I once had, and never again would he get to hold me the way he once had.

Part of me wanted to jump into the water, to see if he would somehow come to save me again, but, unfortunately, I knew better. If I ever did find myself at the bottom of the Black Lake again, there would be no Cedric coming to find me, no Cedric to pull me to the surface, no Cedric to help me to shore, no Cedric to sit with me until the panic passed.

Even if I found myself at the top of the world, somehow, there would be no Cedric then either. I found myself thinking of the Quidditch match when I had first conjured my corporeal patronus, the time my bear had charged down Draco Malfoy and his goons. Cedric was woven into the fabric of that moment, that part of my story. He was there in the memory I used to fuel the patronus. He was the first person to find me on the field. He was there the last time I'd conjured that patronus too, last June before the third task, the night I taught him how to conjure a patronus of his own. He would never again be there for any patronus-worthy moments that I might experience in my life.